Hélène Michel, GEM's professor and serious games expert, was awarded for her latest serious game initiative, Tech it! at the AMBA 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner in London on 20th January 2017.

« Tech it ! » is a game that enables technological client-centric innovation in addition to familiarizing players with technologies. The 75 game technologies were meticulously chosen to be able to create synergies and interesting ideas with the 100 objects and 20 different characters. With more than 150,000 combinations possible, the player's creativity is unlimited.

The game was developed by Grenoble Ecole de Mangament in collaboration with the CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives-), an international student team composed of students from GEM, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), ARIES (Ecole supérieur d'infographie), and with support from IRT Nanoelec.

Hélène Michel said: "This award is the recognition of the serious games strategy we have introduced at GEM over 5 years ago, which aimed to renew our approach to traditional teaching but also to imagine new business models. Today, these learning and teaching methods are true "game changers", both in the classroom but also in businesses where they present a real competitive advantage.

Most Higher Education organizations use serious games. GEM went a step further, and has not only created a whole collection of serious games dedicated to innovation, but has also developed “train the trainers” programs and certificates and a Playground to design and experiment these new methods. It is a global innovation approach, from pedagogy to IP, business model and distribution channels.

Hélène Michel explains why she thinks GEM won the Award: "Gamification creates a "magical circle" in which participants can experiment, test, fail and improve themselves in a protected environment. Therefore it encourages creativity and innovation. GEM offers this "magical circle" to faculty willing to experiment, such as what I did with the development of serious games. We have failed several times, but we are still early in the process. We have iterated and improved ourselves."